Panic Attack Triggered by Dream Recall. Help.

Hello all,

I love forums. The best place to get answers from real people.

I am looking for some help as to what condition I have and if anyone else has the same issue.

This all started about 5-6 years ago. They do not happen that often, but every couple of weeks I will have them. And...I usually have more than one in a day when they do happen. During the course of my day I will be doing something (usually nothing out of the ordinary) and I will have a glimpse of a dream where it feels so real. That is I see what I am doing at that moment and I recall an image from the dream where I was doing the same thing. Up to that point I have no idea that I saw this image in a dream. But when these attacks occur I remember the dream I had. It is only for a very brief moment.

My brain seems to scurry trying to recall everything else that happened in the dream as well. However, I try like crazy to stop myself from recalling my dream (it is very hard to do). Physically I start to get chest pains, feeling of impending doom, and to be honest I feel like I am going to lose bowel control. Also I have a hard time breathing. The situation is very scary to say the least.

After this episode, I feel as if my brain reset. I really do not remember what I was doing at the time nor anything else up to that point in the day. I just feel lost for awhile and it really messes up the rest of my day.

It is kind of hard to explain so I am doing my best here.

These attacks seem to occur after periods where I do not sleep very heavily...or maybe too heavy. I tend to recall that I wake up a lot during the course of my sleep and I do not feel well rested in the morning.

I have a weird work schedule as well. I work 12 hour shifts and switch between working nights and days. These attacks seem to be more frequent when I sleep during the day.

Also, there are some days when I just do not feel right and I fear one of these attacks may be likely that day. When this happens I will change what I am doing at the time. If I watch TV it keeps my mind occupied and off of worrying about an attack.

As far as the dreams, from what I do recall every time they are weird. I am in every dream and the situation is something that is familiar to me; like work. But the dream really does not make any sense. It is very hard to explain.

For instance, I may have a weird dream that involves me in the kitchen at work at some point. Maybe looking at a toaster while I wait for the microwave. Then when I am actually at work doing that I have an attack I remember bits and pieces from that dream. Like I said, my brain gets all fuzzy as it attempts to recall my dream. But, I do not want to because of the painful attack I am having.

I know this seems weird. But it is an attack brought on by something I am doing or seeing that I dreamed about. Prior to the attack I could not tell you what I had dreamed about in my sleep.

Another observation. Since these attacks have started, I really do not feel like the same person anymore. I have always had an excellent memory and I was able to recall images from the past. However, since these attacks have started I really feel like I am a little more "dumb" and do not have a good memory anymore. It is as-if my brain resets my short term memory or scrambles it. I feel very absent minded at times as well.



If anyone has had something like this or knows of something like this, I would sure like to know.

Thank you for reading this.

Sleep deprivation is indeed linked to poor mental functioning (including memory impairment and irrational thought patterns) and bad dreams. The brain needs an adequate total duration of REM to function normally, and if it hasn't had enough from brief periods of dreaming, it remains in the REM state longer, allowing dreams to become more bizarre as they progress. Prolonged sleep deprivation also blurs the line between dream and reality, though I'm not sure from your story if you've gotten that bad yet.

If seeing an image you recall from your dream causes you to panic even though the image isn't frightening, I think you may have developed a cognitive association between the image and a fearful feeling invoked by something else you failed to remember from the dream. Sometimes children develop phobias in babyhood that persist in later stages even though they don't remember being babies; conceivably something similar could happen in an adult with a poor or temporarily suspended memory.

Yes, this has been happening to me. It's not very frequent, and I find that I can stop it if I do something immediately to distract myself like watch TV, or get up and exercise. But the first time it happened, I was sitting at the table telling my daughter to eat her food and my mother was in the kitchen and had her back to me talking to me about something. All of the sudden, this feeling that I was recalling a dream came over me. It wasn't necessarily related to what I was doing and it wasn't frieightening, but I felt as if I was going to pass out as my mind raced to recall the details of the dream, or as the details were being remembered one by one by my brain. I experienced some nausea and quietly left the table and sat on the bathroom floor until the feeling passed. Afterward, I was tired and had a headache. I have had the same sensation that a recall was about to come about, but was able to distract myself. I have this doom that I feel like I am going crazy and am going to lose consciousness. I wonder if this is a particular condition, or what? Is it stress related or a sleep deprivation issue???

Hi! I have been suffering with this too, it's so hard to explain to people when you try to tell them whats happening???? The dream memory is not scary but the panic attack is! It leaves you feeling awful and useless ...

I've had the same experience for years. I'll be driving down the road or doing some task and suddenly it's like my mind is reaching for some suppressed memory or dream I've had. If I can recall the dream then I'm OK, but if I can't then I have a full-blown panic attack. Funny thing is, after the panic attack is over, I have no recollection of the contents of the dream. I know it's something I've dreamed or seen somewhere, maybe on TV or something, but I just can't recall it no matter how hard I try. It's crazy-making stuff

Anybody find a solution? I've been having this issue, combined with waking up sometimes with no short term memory. I've been prescribed Valproic Acid but it doesn't seem to be helping.

I nearly cried when I found this forum. Although my episodes aren't nearly pronounced as some of these, it makes me feel very scared followed by brain scramble. I fist experienced this about 10 years ago but haven't had one in a long time; or at least not one I remember. When they first happened, I thought it was triggered by a high stress life situation at the time but I've starting having them again, at least two this week, but I am not even a tiny bit stressed. Does anyone have trouble with recalling everyday things like the password of your work computer just before an attack happens?

I know this forum is old however it is the only one I can find related to my dream recall episodes. For the past three weeks I've had recollection of a recurring dream. This recollection generally happens when I'm in the shower or before bed The dream itself is not realistic . It's almost cartoonish. But when I recall the details of it, it's as if it actually happened. I get a very strange pre- anxiety attack feeling. A hot feeling, tingling, heart racing, nausea, and strange sense of familiarity with the random images my mind is having flashbacks of. Afterwards I feel mentally exhausted and sometimes just cry. I have anxiety as it is but this dream recall is unlike any other experience. This recurring sensation/ dream state makes me feel like I'm losing my mind. I need to make it go away, but I don't know how.

This type of attack started happening to me about 8 months ago, with identical symptoms to the original poster's description, except in some cases (it's happened close to 20 times now, roughly 2-3 times per month), rather than recalling a dream, it's an overwhelmingly realistic memory that triggers it. I say overwhelmingly, because the memory supersedes what's actually happening in the moment and causes a shutdown.
From further online research it seems to be temporal lobe epilepsy. I'm in the process of seeing a neurologist, who suspects the same. I had an MRI and will shortly undergo an EEG. No treatment has yet been recommended, nor a final diagnosis made. However I didn't see temporal lobe epilepsy mentioned in any of the above responses and wanted to mention it. If you look it up, you will certainly recognize the symptoms. See a neurologist.

This happens to me from time to time. Always when I'm exhausted, either from lack of sleep, a few too many beers the night before, or both. I drift back into the dream from the night before which catches me off guard, then the rush of adrenaline and anxiety kicks. The anxiety plus confusion over why I am suddenly thinking about the dream from the night before can make the anxiety even worse. My theory is that because I am exhausted, it is very easy to slip back into the dream from last night. Almost like the brain is trying to fall back asleep, but the body is amped up and awake, but exhausted. The sensation is exactly like a night terror, but I'm a bit more aware since I have been awake. Having been practicing mindfulness, my solution is to just calmly recognize what is happening, rather than freak out or try to fight it. Recognizing what is actually happening makes the anxiety go away pretty quickly. It can make you feel a little crazy when it happens, but once you are able to pause and recognize what is happening (which is just your brain trying to go back to sleep because you're exhausted) you are already back in the present. The solution for me, get good rest, limit booze, and when it does happen, just calmly recognize that it isn't a threat and you are just exhausted.